One incongruous name, Pieter Friedrich and his links with the known yet forgotten Khalistani operative Bhajan Singh Bhinder alias Iqbal Choudhary operating from the US are characters of the K2 – Khalistan and Kashmir–conspiracy which have come alive once again after the ''toolkit'' accidentally dropped by environmental activist Greta Thunberg opened up a Pandora's box for investigating agencies.
After the Delhi Police arrested climate activist Disha Ravi from Bengaluru and issued non-bailable warrants against Nikita Jacob and Shantanu, the cyber cell of the lead probe agency in the matter said the trio had drafted and edited the toolkit which has incriminating evidence of ''secessionist and pro-Khalistani content embedded into it through links and texts.'' While one incongruous name in the toolkit is Peter Friedrich, another name is Bhinder, who has been on the radar of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, said the Delhi Police.
The toolkit, hence, smelt of an international conspiracy hatched to defame the country and create unrest. Investigating agencies, who probed the genesis of the toolkit, found a global network of Khalistani operatives, backed by the Pakistani spy agency ISI, front organisations and unknown faces like Peter and unsuspecting activists to avoid detection.
Whether Ravi and others were directly part of the conspiracy will be a matter of investigation, but Delhi Police said her role came under the scanner after she was found to be part of drafting the toolkit, allegedly created by a pro-Khalistan group Poetic Justice Foundation.
According to security agencies, Pieter has been the front and unsuspecting face of a Khalistani conspiracy which has roots outside the country. The reason why the Bhinder's name has put police agencies on alert is also due to his alleged contacts with Lal Singh, who was allegedly involved in a conspiracy to assassinate late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1985 during one of this visits to the United States, security sources revealed.
At that time, the FBI had raised an alarm over his activities. He was also allegedly involved in a plan to assassinate Bhajan Lal, then chief minister of Haryana. Lal Singh was arrested on July 14, 1992, and he spent around 28 years in jail. The K2 conspiracy is attributed to Bhinder and Lal Singh.
Indian agencies have been alerting the US intelligence agencies about the continuing militant Sikh activities in the country originating from the US-based Sikh extremist organisations.
It is learnt that New Delhi is once again looking for more cooperation on this front from the US authorities to unearth the foreign links to the latest conspiracy where social media has played a huge role in carrying out a proxy war through an information warfare using the ''toolkit'' during the farmers protest in the national capital this time.
Interestingly, an OSINT group called Disinfo Lab delved into unearthing the international links of the Khalistani conspiracy aiming to infiltrate the farmer movement through information warfare. A great detail of fact checking and background on Pieter, Bhinder and the toolkit has been put out by Disinfo lab simultaneously as the Delhi Police cyber cell shared the details.
On February 4, the police registered a case against unknown persons who made the ''toolkit'' that called for a digital strike, followed by physical action on January 26, while the second part of the document called for targetting culture heritage and Indian embassies overseas. Keeping this in mind, the cyber cell registered a case and during its investigations it found the involvement of certain persons following which a search warrant was obtained on February 9 against Nikita Jacob, one of the editors of the Google toolkit, said the Delhi Police.
When the investigating officer reached Nikita's house in Mumbai, two laptops and one iPhone was found. The Mumbai Police was informed about the searches and Nikita was asked to be present for investigation. Nonetheless, despite a written undertaking, she is missing, said the Delhi Police. The police also said Disha and Shantanu were connected to Nikita through a woman, Puneet, based in Canada. The police claimed that Nikita and Shantanu also attended a Zoom meeting organised by PJF on January 11 along with 60-70 people where the modalities of the ''global day of action'' were worked out.
''The initial examination of Nikita revealed that she and her associates, Shantanu and Disha, had created the Toolkit Google document. The email account created by Shantanu is the owner of this document and all others are its editors. Based on the course of action decided in the Zoom meeting, Nikita, Shantanu, Disha and others collaborated together to draft the toolkit document. The document that they drafted had secessionist and pro-Khalistani content embedded into it through links and texts,'' said the Delhi Police in a press conference. Based on the information gathered from searches at Nikita’s house, separate teams were sent to Maharashtra's Beed district and Bengaluru, Karnataka, for investigation regarding Shantanu and Disha.
The police said Disha was arrested after she deleted the WhatsApp group and incriminating material has been found on her phone. Since she sent the toolkit to Greta, her role needs to be examined, said the police, adding that her arrest was made before her mother and local police. The court has granted five day custody of the activist to the police.